Moments in The Potter Household
by ElysianWinter
Summary: Drabble series on the home life of Lily, James and Harry up till Voldemort's attack. Starts with Lily and James' wedding, and may also include pre-marriage entries. Please Read and Review.
1. Foreword

Moments in the Potter Household 

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Foreword

Yes it is terrible of me to start a new story whilst having ignored my first one (Broken Promises) for…how many years? O.o

Speaking of which, I have to apologise to anyone who was reading it and liked it but I won't be resuming chapters on Broken Promises as I have literally lost the plot. And I'm really sorry 'cause I _HATE_ it when authors do that to a story I'm really into but c'est la vie. In apology I will try to start it over again once I iron out a better plot.

Anyway I'm deeply into the family scene, i.e. father, mother and child/children, what I really wanted was to find a drabble series in the Harry Potter fandom about the family life of the Potters (James, Lily and Harry) with a lot of special father-son bonding moments since I'm a sucker for those, but I went through the Harry Potter Fandom trying to find the story I was looking for – I've yet to find it in it's entirety so I figure I'll just write it for myself. I probably won't stick to any sort of chronological order but I'll do my best. I'll start off with Lily and James' wedding day and I may include some pre-marriage drabbles too.

So this is a drabble series that will focus on the inter-family relationships of the 3 Potters, there'll be a lot of cameos from other characters in the books and some slight spoilers for Deathly Hallows. These will probably only get as far as the murder of Lily and James but I may do sequel series about Harry and Ginny's family and maybe even Ron and Hermione's.

So that's all I have to say, and I hope you enjoy the series.

Elysian Winter


	2. Wedding Day

_"The real act of marriage takes place in the heart, not in the ballroom or church or synagogue. It's a choice you make - not just on your wedding day, but over and over again - and that choice is reflected in the way you treat your husband or wife."  
_ Barbara De Angelis

_"When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."_  
From _When Harry Met Sally_

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Wedding Day

James felt nauseous. No pre-Quidditch match nerves had ever come close o what he was feeling now. Sirius, who could read him like a book, kept giving him the kind of mocking glances that would have earned him a retort on any other day in the year.

But today James knew that it was nothing more than an attempt to distract him. It was moments like these when James didn't remember that he was technically an only child. Because when Sirius acted like this, James knew that he had a brother.

James turned his eyes from his best man and fixated on the church doors once again. His heart was in turmoil, filled with terror and anticipation in equal parts. He felt like he'd been waiting forever for this day to come. Recalling Remus' advice during their preparation, he let his mind wander, flitting inevitably to the preparations for the wedding.

He'd never seen Lily so stressed before. She'd wanted everything to be absolutely perfect. He couldn't remember the number of times he'd taken her aside to just hold her in his arms and whisper how much he loved her; kissing her hair to calm her down when some other tiny detail he thought was irrelevant, was going wrong.

But looking around the chapel filled with only their closest friends and family, (Petunia had even turned up) James saw that Lily had achieved her perfect wedding, and he could admit those tiny details made a big difference.

He and Petunia had never gotten along – it wasn't because she despised magic but because of the way Petunia treated his beloved Lily. But although Lily wasn't torn apart any longer by Petunia's minimal involvement in her life since she had been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she had been adamant that Petunia come to the wedding. And on this day (and probably every other from today onwards), what Lily wanted, Lily got.

Stirred from his reflections by the start of the music, James looked up and his eyes met with Lily's. His nerves, the room and everyone in it and time itself disappeared because she was all that mattered. Before he knew it, his eyes were falling shut, lips meeting hers and his life was perfect because she was now his and he was hers. The rest of their lives had finally begun.


	3. Sleeping Arrangements

"_Bedrooms are spaces of pure self expression (especially when you have your own house), but beds are as thrones to the throne room. Sharing a bedroom can be difficult and challenging, sharing a bed is near impossible."_

Elysian Winter

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Sleeping Arrangements

Lily Potter _nee_ Evans could not sleep for the fifth night in a row. James' arms around her were making her torso too hot and his feet, entangled in her own were far too cold. His tiny snores (the ones she had found cute during the six weeks of their honeymoon) now made her periodically wake up slightly alarmed and under the impression that there was a bear in their bedroom.

Glancing at the clock she saw it was 0:52 a.m. She was exhausted; her head hurt because of all the sleep she hadn't gotten; her feet were freezing; her body was overheating; her throat was parched; her eyeballs ached and the air in their bedroom was too stuffy.

Glancing at the clock again the new Mrs James Potter read 1:25 am. She gave up – they had a long hard day ahead of them in Healer training tomorrow, and she desperately needed to rest.

Wriggling gently out of her husband's arms and carefully disentangling her feet from his she grabbed her as yet unused pillow, a light blanket from the wardrobe and her wand. Padding as lightly as possible across their carpeted wooden floor she stubbed her toe on the dresser by the door. She held in her mild curse as she irritably recalled that it had been James' idea to put it there, part of their compromise in decorating the bedroom. Unfortunately James had not been as conveniently apathetic about the decoration of their bedroom as he had been about what colour cravat the groomsmen would have to wear to best coordinate with the bridesmaids' bouquets.

Getting a nice cool drink of orange juice, Lily proceeded to curl up on the living room couch after opening the window. She was asleep almost instantly. It was barely ten minutes later she awoke again, to find herself looking into James' beloved face.

"What are you doing down here sweetheart?" The question was innocent enough, it was the hurt in James voice and eyes, visible to her by wand light that set her already frazzled emotions on edge.

"It's just- I just…" to her horror she could feel tears on her face. Exhaustion had always made her emotional. Instantly she was in James's arms, " I'm sorry Lils it wasn't an accusation…please don't cry sweetheart." A little calmer, Lily explained her problem. She didn't know what she expected in response, but it certainly wasn't James' eyes widening, his expression becoming sheepish or him pointing his wand at his nose, feet and torso in succession muttering "_finite incantatem". _Lily stared; with a slight blush James explained that he'd made his feet cold to have an excuse to entangle them with hers (which she always said got too hot); he'd made his body warmer because she was always complaining that she was too cold. He'd made himself snore because he'd once heard her say she thought light snoring was cute.

Lily looked at her husband, his face flushed with embarrassment. Wordlessly picking up her things in one hand and grabbing James' hand with the other she led them back to their bedroom. Putting away the blanket, she conjured a jar of ice water and a glass onto her bedside table, opened the window halfway (James hated waking to a cold bedroom) and lit a small fire in the grate to make up the difference. She got back into bed soon to be joined by her husband. This time James kept to his side of the bed. Both of them barely lasted two minutes before James was spooning Lily again. To her delight Lily found James was naturally cool from head to toe, she was asleep within minutes.

Waking up after the best night sleep she'd ever had, Lily turned in James' arms to find him gazing at her, with a tender expression. As he opened his mouth to speak, she cut him off with a soft, sweet kiss on the lips.

Bed-head was just so adorable on James...

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Author's note: Lily's sleep problems are based on me; I'm a _very_ high maintenance sleeper.

Elysian Winter


	4. Glance

"_Oddly commitment is best expressed in the realm of the mundane. Those tiny things observers deem insignificant; the brush of fingertips across a palm when hands separate, a tiny smile after an exhausting day, the 'sweetheart' appended to a greeting or farewell are the turning cogs which keep the magic alive. "_

Elysian Winter

AN: I came up with the quote above literally at this moment. _Man_ I'm good, if I say so myself.

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Glance

There's a certain expression that Lily makes which James adores above all others. It's this way she has of looking at him in the most unlikely moments. He'd never admit it but this particular expression is what James has been thinking of to generate his patronus since the winter of their sixth year.

It always occurs at the oddest times in James' mind. He has seen it immediately after she comes home after a horrible day in healer training or when a mission with the order has gone badly; in the middle of her sobs when she's crying; in laughter and joy, bemusement and anguish. It never fails to catch him unawares.

When it happens, her eyes become so soft and tender; his heart immediately skips a beat. Then there's this twinkle in her eyes that makes him unconsciously half-gasp the next breath he takes. Finally there is the not-quite-smile that her lips quirk into which fills him with a near-overwhelming desire to kiss her.

He has never told her but the first time she ever looked at him with _that_ expression, he had decided to give up on her after so many rejections. That look made him ask her, _just one more time_, to go out with him (the first time she said yes). And every time he got angry enough or hurt enough to end their relationship (one of the astonishing things James learned from finally being with Lily was that she was in fact capable of making him want to end things between them) that one look halted his plans.

With one glance, she makes him fall in love with her all over again. And every moment following is a new chapter in their romance.

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Elysian Winter: (whining) _Nobody is reviewing my story!_ bursts into tears

Sirius Black: _As you can see the author is reduced to being pathetic. Please review so that she can salvage what little dignity she has left._


	5. Fear

"_Nothing is more frightening than the idea of losing someone precious to you."_

- Elysian Winter

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Fear

He still wasn't home yet.

It wasn't that it was especially late, it's just that the reconnaissance mission he'd had with Sirius and Mad-Eye should have been over two hours ago. James knew how she worried. He always came home to see her and let her fuss over him 'til she convinced herself that he was alright, before submitting a report to the order. He never lingered after a mission; always and without fail he came home first before anything else. It was a promise he had made to her the moment they'd become members of the Order of the Phoenix.

She used to wait at the Order headquarters but it had filled her with too much anguish.

Before every reconnaissance mission (the only ones with a time limit attached), each member was issued with their person-specific portkey which would transport them directly to headquarters at the projected mission completion time. For various reasons, portkeys would sometimes arrive without their owners. Each time she saw James' red and gold quill arrive without him, she'd often be halfway into a panic attack by the time he was able to apparate safely to headquarters, her mind swimming with images of his mortally wounded form, or his lifeless corpse. Hence the decision that she remain at home.

Glancing outside, Lily saw the cloudy blue skies which heralded a typical cold English day. At times like these, she wished she had a clock like Molly Weasley's which, rather than tell the time, indicated where each member of her family was and what condition they were in. A moment later Lily retracted this wish, recalling that lately Molly's clock had started indicating that all her family members were in 'mortal peril'.

Because of Lily's fears, James had a special goodbye ritual for when he went on a mission with either the Order or the Aurors. He would gather her close, gently embrace her, kiss her tenderly and whisper that he loved her, more than anything else in the world. He always put a finger over her lips before she could say the words back to him, insisting that she could say them when he got back.

So Lily turned from the window, and stared at the flames which danced in the grate. With hope in her heart and a prayer on her lips, she would wait. Because James Potter had to be told that she loved him, more than anything else in the world.


	6. Patterns of Behaviour

Author's Note: Dedicated to sunnysmile (my first signed review giant grin) who pointed out that Lily came off as being a bit selfish – after reading all the chapters again I saw your point; so I turned it into a drabble. :D

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Patterns of Behaviour

James knew that she didn't do it because of any conscious belief that she was more important than him in their relationship. By this point it was a habit ingrained into her by the years they spent perfecting their shtick. Before they started dating, they had reached a point when each of their encounters conformed to the same innate algorithm.

Step one; James displays his affection for her in some garishly public, exuberant way that reinforces her unfair but understandable (based on past behaviour) belief that first of all, he does this partly for attention and second of all his feelings are shallow and therefore the chase is probably what appeals most to him.

Step two; following said public demonstration, he asks her out for the n-hundredth time.

Step three; Miss Evans rejects him for the n-hundredth time with a witty, cutting remark, missing the way the twinkle in his eyes dims, and in the prefect years exacerbating the wound by giving him detention or taking points off Gryffindor.

Lily was the type of person who was cruel without intent or malice; in darker moments, James couldn't decide whether this was better or worse than people who were deliberately cruel. Her tendency at times to be oblivious to his feelings was the character flaw (in her) which caused the most damage in their relationship. The flaw on his part which accompanied hers was his habit of silence. Lily rarely knew when she had hurt him because he rarely let it show that he had been hurt.

This morning Sirius had visited; if he hadn't Lily would probably have never been enlightened about how much it bothered him when someone was careless with his chess set. The set had been a gift from a great uncle James had been very close to from childhood up to the age of thirteen when he had passed away. Lily thought wizards chess was a barbaric game (though she always played when he asked) and she tended to pick up pieces and just dump them in the case after a game, missing the way he winced.

As she had started her dumping ritual, Sirius who had been watching had said "That right there is proof of how much Prongs adores you. No one else gets away with handling that chess set the way you are right now." Lily had seized on the comment and made Padfoot explain everything. Afterwards she'd been so remorseful (and near tearful) that James had felt guilty.

Those were their flaws; James would work on talking to Lily more, and Lily would try harder to listen. James had been hurt too many times whilst chasing Lily Evans, he refused to let their bad habits ruin these years when he finally had her.

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End file.
